Hopkins battles Murat tonight in Atlantic City

By Boxing News - 10/26/2013 - Comments

002 Hopkins-Schafer-Murat IMG_0099(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO’s) Karo Murat (25-1-1, 15 KO’s) will be looking to put on a boxing clinic tonight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hopkins has the right opponent for him to look good against and possibly even stop with the easy to hit Murat.

This is perhaps the weakest opponent that Hopkins has faced since his victory over Enrique Ornelas four years ago in 2009. You can’t blame Hopkins for this fight. He has little choice but to defend his title against Murat, because it was the International Boxing Federation’s bright idea to rank him number 1. It’ll be the IBF that ends up looking silly tonight when Murat is easily beaten by Hopkins.

Hopkins, 48, will be looking to show that he’s still a young fighter capable of taking on the big names in boxing tonight. It’s not going to be enough to just beat Murat. This fight is really about Hopkins looking good and putting on an exciting enough performance to create demand for him to fight the likes of Carl Froch, Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev.

Forget about Floyd Mayweather Jr. Hopkins won’t get that fight and hopefully the sooner he quiets down about talking about wanting to fight him the better it will be for him. Hopkins needs to be realistic about the guys that he actually can fight, and Kovalev, Froch and Stevenson are definitely strong possibilities for him. However, it’s going to be really tough to create interest in fights of that nature if Hopkins ends up clinching and running all night long tonight. We can’t see Hopkins fight like he did in his two bouts with Chad Dawson or his fight, and his loss to Joe Calzaghe.

The holding, the moving and the falling down. Hopkins must stay on his feet and not run and hold. It’s painful to watch Hopkins when he’s boxing his opponents and grinding out decisions one after another. It’s been nine years since Hopkins last stopped an opponent and even then it was a welterweight in Oscar De La Hoya. Hopkins fights have been dull to watch for a long time, and it’s going to take a minor miracle for him to reverse that trend tonight against Murat.

This should be someone that Hopkins will look good against, but when you’re 48 and about to turn 49 like he is, it’s probably too much to ask for him to put on an exciting fight. Hopkins will most likely fall back into his old method of fighting after the 1st round and start clinching and moving round after round to avoid getting hit. Will a stinker like some of Hopkins other fights? Probably unless Murat gets taken out. I doubt that happen unless Hopkins wills himself to throw more than 20 punches per round, which is about his average. As mediocre as Murat is, he can take 20 punches per round and still make it the full 12 rounds to lose on points.

Rather than take this fight, Hopkins should have vacated the IBF title and instead faced Stevenson, Kovalev or Froch. But in taking on Murat, Hopkins gets a title milking fight that will in theory make him look better than he actually is.



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